TVSquad

(S05E07) I guess the fate of Marion Ross was handled off-screen, because Matthew and Richard are settling into her old digs, and she was nowhere to be seen this episode. Now that I think about it, though, she could be shacking up in Matthew's old digs out in the backyard. It would make for a pretty funny callback to have her character pop back up. Maybe even act as if Christine didn't even know she'd moved in back there.

I wasn't as impressed with the forced obligatory "we're different but now we're roommates" storyline for Matthew and Richard. Hopefully, now that it's out of the way, the writers have some ideas of some fun things they can do with the mismatched pair. In five seasons, we've not seen a great deal of interaction between them, but their differences could make for some good comedy.

(S05E05) This could turn out to be the single most important episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine. Dare I say it was "a very special episode of" The New Adventures of Old Christine? Oh, who am I kidding, things will never change, but isn't that why we love it.

It was a lot of fun seeing Eric McCormack as Matthew's mentor in therapy, as well as his office-mate. That's an easy way to set him up for a recurring role on the show for awhile. And they gave him a shady past, which is an easy way to write him off the show at a moment's notice.

He was there to give Christine someone new to bounce her craziness off of. I absolutely loved their first scene together. Christine all hopped up on diet pills from the '70s, dressed like Maude and working as a temporary fill-in as Matthew's secretary. Every week Julia Louis-Dreyfus cracks me up with just how undignified she's willing to look for this role.

On paper, Trust Me looked like a sure fire hit. I tuned in week after week to watch the show, so I consider myself a loyal viewer, but I have to be honest. The show never took off. Bob got it right in his early look, Trust Me had all the elements for something special, but it just never jelled. TNT has cancelled Trust Me after one season.

The guy in charge of TNT programming, Michael Wright, implied that a drama set in the advertising business was just a little too inaccessible for viewers. And that was the issue; not enough Nielsen numbers.

Are there any big fans of TNT's Trust Me out there? I'm really curious to find out. I like the show, but it still hasn't hooked me. I thought it started out with a lot of potential, and the charismatic leads – Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh – are great, but that's not enough to keep me coming back every week.

I guess most viewers feel the same way. Trust Me has been getting killed in the ratings for weeks, and now it looks like the show might never get a chance to find its groove. McCormack is reportedly ready to move on. He's been cast as the lead in an ABC comedy pilot produced by Tad Quill (Dirty Sexy Money).

In case you didn't know, I'm Canadian. That being said, I watch tons and tons of American TV, partially because our main English channels -- CTV and Global, just to name two -- mostly air US shows. And, let's admit it, I enjoy a lot the shows created by my friends south of the border.

Since there are more TV shows produced in the US and because actors can make more money down south, a lot of Canadian actors go to the USA. to work (or try to get work in a US show shot in Vancouver or Toronto). Here I present you with ten Canadian actors currently starring in lead roles in various primetime US TV shows. Did you know these ten actors were not from the US?

Trust Me is one of those shows that will probably not make it -- the ratings have been careening -- but I'm still watching it. I'm not sure why. It's not a great show, but I do like Tom Cavanagh and Eric McCormack. They're good together, even though the show around them seems to lurch from story to story without much cohesion.

I think the problem is that unlike a legal, medical or cop show, it's hard to dramatize the creative process. How do you show two ad men, an art director (now creative director) and a copywriter, come up with amazing commercials, billboards, ads, etc.?

(S07E07) Too often when a show reaches an anniversary, like say 100 episodes, the producers feel the need to mark the occasion with an extraordinary entry. That was what happened with Monk.

To commemorate the 100th episode, they created Mr. Monk's 100th Case, and using a show within a show format, celebrated Adrian Monk, a modern day Sherlock Holmes. San Francisco's defective detective

Thank goodness it all worked! I was afraid we were going to get a clip-laden, down-memory-lane type of show with nothing remotely intriguing. No, writer Tom Scharpling and company were more clever than that.

In case you haven't heard, there is the possibility of a writers strike in early 2008, and TV networks have started to buy more and more scripts ahead of time just in case.

ABC has Section 8, which is described as being about "everyday people with exceptional neurological abilities recruited to work for a secret branch of a government agency" (again? *sigh*). NBC passed on the show because it was too much like another show they have about ordinary folks with powers (hmmm...The Biggest Loser?)

File this under "Famous Last Words": Eric McCormack told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television festival that the experience of doing Will & Grace was so perfect, that he doesn't think that he's going to do another sitcom again.

Ever.

Uh-huh. Suuure, Eric. You're just coming off a long-running sitcom that, no matter how bad it got over the years, still had a palpable chemistry amongst the cast. You're tired of the grind right now, and you think that you'll never be able to replicate what you had on your old show. You may even be concentrating on working on the stage, which is where you started. But if, after a few years in the relative obscurity of Broadway, NBC or someone else waves a juicy sitcom part under your nose, especially one that's accompanied by pots of money, you don't think you're going to say yes? Let's just say that your mouth shouldn't be writing checks that your "artistic integrity" can't cash, pal.

(S08E23) There are those who are die-hard fans of Will & Grace, which premiered on the NBC schedule back in 1998. Then there are those who despise the show, which is about the relationship between Grace Adler (Debra Messing) and her gay friend Will Truman (Eric McCormack). The fans love the back-and-forth between the two characters and the dynamic of their relationship. Those who hate the show may be uncomfortable with the subject matter (homosexuality) or the cartoon-ish characterizations of Will and Grace's friends Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) and Karen Walker (Megan Mullally ), or the fact that it's just not funny.

I fall under neither category. I liked Will & Grace, but was not a huge fan. I'd watch it if I happened to see something interesting going on, and I'd laugh at a few of the lines (not as heartily as I would laugh during an episode of Scrubs, though). Yet, Jack annoyed me sometimes and the influx of guest stars on the show was somewhat distracting. In fact, over the last few years I didn't really follow it at all.

However, as this would be the last episode of the series, I decided to give it a review. My opinion on the last show of the series? Meh.

NBC has a solid history of confusing and/or misleading previews (check out tonight's West Wing, for example -- and that's all I'll say for now), and the tradition continues in previews for the final episodes of Will and Grace.

The previews all show Will and Grace doing things as a "couple": kissing passionately, Will throwing Grace down on the bed to make love to her, Grace asking Will to be there for her and her baby, and one scene of them walking down the aisle together.

But it's all out of context! The kiss was a kiss of two best friends, the scene with Will and Grace in bed was a flashback to when they dated and he hadn't come out yet, the scene about the baby is Will and Grace discussing her future as a single mom, and the scene of them walking down the aisle? That was the ep where Will gave away Grace at her wedding to Leo!

Of course, maybe it's all misdirection. Maybe the show is going to surprise us all by having Will turn out to be straight (he never can keep a man, can he?), and she and Will get married and live happily ever after! Talk about twist endings.

JustJared has some photos from the filming of the last episode of Will and Grace (no spoilers - it's photos of the cast taking a bow in front of the studio audience). The finale will be 45 minutes long, and the DVD of the finale will actually go on sale a mere 5 days after it is shown on NBC (May 23)!

Talk about quick turnaround.

[via TV Tattle]

Sitcoms Online reports that Eric McCormack of Will and Grace has created a show for Lifetime television called Lovespring International. The series, which is slated for six episodes, will focus on a dating service that alleges to be based in Beverly Hills, but is actually in Tarzana. The staff of the dating service work to convince their clients that their service can find them the perfect match. Actually, isn't that rather similar to UPN's Love Inc? I'd imagine some might make that comparison when the improvised show airs on June 5, but since it's on Lifetime no one will probably see it anyway, so I guess it's a moot point.

These people are starting to make Christians look like they don't have a sense of humor. The same group that yelled and screamed about The Book of Daniel's pill-popping priest who conversed with Jesus is now hollering about Will and Grace. It's not the homosexual characters on the show that they're taking issue with, or the constant feeling-up of characters, or the references to alcoholism and pill-popping. They're all upset over the plans for a Britney Spears cameo in which she plays a Christian chef. They don't like that her character has a cooking segment called Cruci-fixins. The group, called The American Family Association, accuses NBC of mocking Christ's crucifixion and says the network will "further denegrate Christianity" by airing the episode the night before Good Friday. On its website, this group is urging NBC affiliates to boycott the episode, just like it got some affiliates to do for Daniel. NBC has already started back-peddling, saying that the episode isn't even written yet so the name of the cooking segment isn't exactly set in stone.

God, I'd love to see NBC stick to its guns and stay with Cruci-fixins. That's funny, y'all. Plus, it'll probably help the floundering show's ratings as it ends its run on NBC this spring.

In the long line of celebrity guest stars on Will & Grace, I think we've reached rock bottom. No, wait. Rock bottom would be a guest appearance by Kevin Federline.

Federline's better half, Britney Spears, will guest star on the sitcom as it sputters into oblivion this Spring. She will play a conservative Christian chef who has a cooking segment on Jack's talk show. The name of the cooking segment? Cruci-Fixins. Brit Brit gets forced onto Jack's show when a Christian company buys the fictional Out TV network. The guest appearance airs on April 13